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Platt’s BlueCrest Opens Office in Miami, a Tax Haven

Platt’s BlueCrest Opens Office in Miami, a Tax Haven

(Bloomberg) -- BlueCrest Capital Management, the investment firm led by billionaire Michael Platt, has opened an office in Miami that’s initially staffed by six portfolio managers, according to people familiar with the matter.

BlueCrest, which is based in Jersey, Channel Islands, is among the latest money managers to open an office in Florida, a state with no income tax and low property levies. The personal preferences of the six BlueCrest managers prompted their relocation to Miami, the people said.

Florida is attempting to lure investment firms following the federal tax law’s new $10,000 cap on state and local deductions, including property taxes. Buyout firm I Squared Capital is opening an office in Miami later this year, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. Hedge fund titans David Tepper and Paul Tudor Jones have also opened offices in the Sunshine state in recent years.

BlueCrest plans to grow the office by hiring more money managers from the U.S. A representative for the firm declined to comment.

In 2010, Platt relocated to Geneva from London after the U.K. government said it would raise taxes on top earners. He moved his headquarters to Jersey, a low-tax jurisdiction, in 2014.

BlueCrest said in December 2015 that it would return client money -- about $7 billion of the $8 billion it managed -- and wanted to trade with high levels of borrowed capital. That approach helped the private investment firm gain 54 percent last year on top of an almost 50 percent jump in 2016.

--With assistance from Katia Porzecanski and Katherine Burton.

To contact the reporters on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net;Nishant Kumar in London at nkumar173@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski

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